Calm and cool: Beccaria is leading the Mini Transat

It is hard to imagine a better start to the second leg of the Mini Transat (read our presentation HERE ) than this for Ambrogio Beccaria and the Pogo 3 Geomag. The Italian skipper, already the winner of the first leg, took the lead among the Series immediately after the start from Gran Canaria.

After heading south for the first 24 hours, Beccaria gybed in the middle of Aliseo, consistently sailing a few tenths faster than his direct competitors. Now Ambrose is sailing starboard tack approaching the orthodomic course, in the next few hours he should feel a gradual decrease in wind intensity, with a rotation to the east. It is likely, therefore, that Geomag will return to gybing by sailing left tack in a southwesterly direction, and this game could continue over the next few days, as it seeks a balance between approaching toward the finish, still 2200 miles away, and positioning itself in the best trade wind flow. The surprising detail is that right now Ambrose is even ahead of the first of the prototypes.

Two direct competitors, who finished second and third in the first leg, are to be watched: Beccaria boasts an hour and 43-minute lead over Felix De Navacelle and two hours and 40 minutes over Matthieu Vincent, but the two are currently in 10th and 12th position, respectively, 78 and 81 miles behind.

Of no concern is the position of Vincent, who is sailing almost in line with Beccaria; to be monitored, however, is that of De Navacelle, who is making a long southerly edge creating considerable lateral separation from the Italian. A tactical choice that will have to be evaluated in the next 48 hours.

Of note is Matteo Sericano’s excellent provisional fifth place among the protos (Sericano, however, has a 24-hour penalty for having boarded in Las Palmas a medium spinnaker not registered from the first leg, having broken the original sail). Also among protos Luca Rosetti is 16th. Daniele Nanni 27th among series, Marco Buonanni 34th, Alessio Campriani 50th, Luigi Dubini 56th.

Tracking HERE

Mauro Giuffrè

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